In Depth

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment dismissing a woman’s Family and Medical Leave Act claim
against the company that fired her because she didn’t give proper notice for an extension of leave and failed to return
to work as expected.

Letecia Brown sued Ford Motor Co. after she was fired for not reporting to work or explaining in writing or by phone why
she didn’t come to work following an approved FMLA leave. Brown’s original FMLA leave expired Aug. 28 and she
was to return to work the following day. Because she couldn’t get an appointment with a psychiatrist until the day she
was to return to work, she didn’t go back to work as expected and failed to properly notify Ford within two days of
learning Aug. 21 she had to extend her leave as required by policy.

Brown claimed to speak by phone with a nurse at the plant’s medical clinic on Aug. 30, telling the nurse that her doctor
had extended her leave to Sept. 16. Ford had no record of this call and sent her certified mail notifying her that she had
five days to return to work or explain why she was absent or else she would be fired. She didn’t pick up the mail and
was fired Sept. 11.

She filed several suits against the company, but the only one at issue is her claim Ford interfered with her FMLA rights.
The District Court originally denied summary judgment for Ford because it found the Aug. 30 phone call provided sufficient
notice of Brown’s intent to extend her FMLA leave because it happened with two working days of the expiration of her
original leave. But the court later reconsidered because the FMLA regulations require employees to give notice within one
to two working days of learning about the need for leave, and granted judgment in favor of Ford dismissing the claim.

Brown raised three new arguments on appeal, which even if they weren’t waived, would fail, noted Judge Sykes. The court
rejected her argument that she complied with FMLA regulations because she provided notice as soon as practicable because Brown
didn’t show it was impractical for her to give notice on Aug. 21.

The court wasn’t persuaded by her other arguments either – that Ford’s 5-day quit notice was an explicit
waiver of its right to rely on the one or two working days’ notice provision of the FMLA; that by not firing her on
the day she failed to return to work, the company waived its right to rely on the FMLA provisions governing notice; and her
phone call to the nurse was a request for new FMLA leave instead of an extension of her original leave.